And I'll try and keep it as brief as possible...
Early morning visits to Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday and Wednesday failed to reveal the biggy, but the Tuesday visit did show; 28 Teal, 25 Blackwits, 23 Dunlin, 11 Common Sands, four Green Sands, four Ringed Plover, two Lapwing, a Whimbrel and a Wheatear. On Wednesday it was slightly different with; 28 Teal, 24 Blackwits, 24 Dunlin, 15 Common Sands, 14 Green Sands (my biggest count of 2012), nine Ringed Plover, two Gadwall, a Redshank and a Snipe.
Early morning visits to Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday and Wednesday failed to reveal the biggy, but the Tuesday visit did show; 28 Teal, 25 Blackwits, 23 Dunlin, 11 Common Sands, four Green Sands, four Ringed Plover, two Lapwing, a Whimbrel and a Wheatear. On Wednesday it was slightly different with; 28 Teal, 24 Blackwits, 24 Dunlin, 15 Common Sands, 14 Green Sands (my biggest count of 2012), nine Ringed Plover, two Gadwall, a Redshank and a Snipe.
The two Gadwall
The Dunlin flock right in front of the hide!
Another look over Black Hole Marsh on Friday (I was a 'Guide in the Hide' for three hours) showed lower numbers of everything, but an adult Med Gull was my first in the valley for several weeks.
I've done a bit of sea watching since my last post too, although a twenty minute watch on Wednesday morning was the only one worth talking about, as a Balearic and 24 Manx Sheartwaters flew east.
That leaves me with today to mutter about. My phone was busy this morning, with Beer showing good numbers of grounded migrants. So I decided it would be a great idea to take Jess for a walk around the Beer Cemetery Fields :-). Lots of Willow Warblers about, along with four Spot Flies and a nice male Redstart. Sadly no shrikes or rare warblers though.
And now for moths! Although the total of 134 moths of 35 species wasn't very impressive at all, some of the species were...
Best of all was a new species for the garden, there were two of them in fact...
I've done a bit of sea watching since my last post too, although a twenty minute watch on Wednesday morning was the only one worth talking about, as a Balearic and 24 Manx Sheartwaters flew east.
That leaves me with today to mutter about. My phone was busy this morning, with Beer showing good numbers of grounded migrants. So I decided it would be a great idea to take Jess for a walk around the Beer Cemetery Fields :-). Lots of Willow Warblers about, along with four Spot Flies and a nice male Redstart. Sadly no shrikes or rare warblers though.
And now for moths! Although the total of 134 moths of 35 species wasn't very impressive at all, some of the species were...
Best of all was a new species for the garden, there were two of them in fact...
Hoary Footman - ok it may not look great, but they certainly made my day!
These represented one of the four species of Footman in the trap, with the other three species being Buff, Common, and this...
Male Four-spotted Footman - one of my favourites
There was also one of these...
Crescent Dart
Two of these...
Iron Prominents
And four Silver Y, including this very black individual...
The blackest one I've ever seen!
I will not leave it so long until my next post I promise!!!
Hi Steve, presumably Ab nigricans.
ReplyDeleteCheers